Starting around 5 years ago I discovered the digital camera experience. I remember standing in the hallway at work and discussing the technology briefly with a co-worker and soon after that we made a purchase of a very low quality point-and-shoot for something like $350 USD. I was so exciting to snap a frame and actually see it immediately. Then the coolest part — we could open the images in photoshop, admire them, edit them, and the ultimately great part — we could post them on the internet for everyone to see. We were cool. At the time, high end digital SLR cameras were topping $5000-$10000 and were pretty much out of reach for the average consumer. Our little point-and-shoot was fun but it lacked the quality and storage capacity needed to really dive in and take as many shots as my little creative mind could capture. So regretfully I wrote it off as a toy and stuck with my Canon 35mm SLR, Fuji film and waited.

Then about 3 years ago I came into some money and decided to take the leap. I still couldn't afford my desired SLR but found something that would be ideal for capturing unlimited snapshots of my newborn son. My Nikon Coolpix was a 4 megapixel dream come true. In addition to the benefits previously listed I was able to capture at least 70 fairly high res images and I could print them out on my new HP photo printer at home — I was in heaven.

In 2003 Canon unleashed a ground breaking announcement. They were going to release the very first SLR digital camera under $1000. It was $900 to be exact or even less via Ebay or specialty outlets. To me this signaled the official start of the Digital Revolution for consumers. The DigiRev is in full swing now and everybody seems to be wanting a digital camera and buzz words like megapixel are becoming part of our standard vocabulary. I tend to gauge the popularity of technology when my parents and in-laws start asking me about or purchasing things that I enjoy. It's the beginning of 2005 now and they purchased their first VCR about 20 years ago, their first camcorder about 10 years ago, their first PC with scanner and printer about 5 years ago and this year they started to research and ask about digital cameras. My brother actually ended up taking the leap for them and bought them one for Christmas. I see digital cameras in my weekly newspaper ads for less than $150 and in fact I have seen companies giving them away as part of membership promotions. The time is now.

With all this digital information floating around I started to wonder and become concerned as we have in the past about properly taking care of our photos. In the past we were always able to rely on our negatives if the dog chewed up our prints or they got lost somehow. We also didn't take as many pictures in the past and produce as many "keeper" images due to the cost of film and developing so we didn't have the amount of images that we are faced with today. With digital technology, many more images are considered "keepers" since we are much less restrained by financial limitations and we just snap away. But today we are amassing such a large amount of personal photographic history that it is becoming mandatory that we find solutions to view, store, backup and archive our photographic memories.